Dear Banjo,

The Galbally Report, 1978, was the turning point when it urged tha Australian Government "to encourage the retention of the cultural heritage of different ethnic groups and promote intercultural understanding." It recognized that it was better to give our ethnic minorites a choice between the invisibility of assimilation and the drama of separateness. A choice of the extremes or of any point between. That they have a right to be different, to protect their traditions, to remember their languages. Of course this caused problems at first - in a society that saw homogeneity as not only desirable but mandatory. There was tension between the ethnic groups and "us," not to mention between and within the ethnic groups themselves. Sadly, many of the problems that developed impinged on the children of the communities, as they fought their disapproving parents for the right to go to a nighclub, for the right to choose a
boyfriend "outside."

In the process we ended up with a more vigorous, exciting country, and in the end, through interaction and discussion, we've sorted most of the problems out.

We're not going in the wrong direction. Our history has shown that quite clearly. Our Greek and Italian communities are the largest groups and are fully integrated. Melbourne is famously claimed to be the largest Greek city outside Greece. Vietnamese Australians experienced intense hostility when they first arrived in the late 70s and early 80s, but time, and the entry of increasing numbers of Vietnamese-Australians into public life, have eroded that prejudice.

Your current expressed hostility toward "Lebs" undoes more than a century of successful migration and settlement from Lebanon and polarises people afresh. In the last 5 years there has been documented and anecdotal evidence of a mass increase in harassment, vilification, and violence towards Australians of Arab appearance both in the media and in popular imagination. Prejudice creates what it fears. We end up with volatile parts of communities living in deep alienation. Our politicians continue to benefit from the fear of Muslims and Arabs rather than working to educate and lead Australians beyond it.

Suzie on Line said;
We can't just have a blanket ban on one whole group of people, or their culture.

Yes we can ! Why should we put ourselves to the expense and trouble
of trying to sort the wheat from the chaff ?

The police complain that they just don't get co-operation from the
moslem community when making inquiries.
This even occurs after a family has been shot at. The victims, who it
seems from comments, are known to police refuse to confirm what the police think they know.

In Sydney we are having almost daily driveby shootings.
A while back they even had the nerve to shoot up a police station.
This is not Baghdad or Kabul.
Yesterday there was another driveby shooting, but the perpetrators
were chased into another suburb by the "victims" and a street
firefight occurred there.
Enough is enough !

I am sorry, I think we have lent over backwards far enough and long enough.
It is now time to call a halt to islamic immigration.
Any criminal activity by family members should be grounds to deport
the whole family, naturalised or not.

Tough ? Unreasonable ? Probably, but what recourse to they leave ?

Dear Bazz,

Criminals are criminals whether they are Muslim, Christian, Jewish,
or any other religion. However people are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law and certainly those caught should be tried under the law the same as anybody who commits unlawful acts. However what your suggesting is banning an entire group of people because of the actions of a few. Would you say the same about other groups that partake in thuggery and crime? Should we ban entire groups of people no matter who they are or is it only Muslims that you prefer to target?

Bazz <"In Sydney we are having almost daily driveby shootings."

Were the Morans or their cohorts Muslim? Were the Asian triad drug-lords Muslim, were the Italian Mafia Muslim?
No, they weren't, didn't they all participate in drive-by shootings at some time?
What about the IRA? What about all those violent Irish Catholics blowing up all the protestants?
Should we thus ban all Asians, Italians, Irish and Catholics from Australia? If not, why not?

We are a multicultural country Bazz, whether you like it or not.
If all immigrants and descendents of immigrants were to be asked to leave, then only Indigenous Australians would be left.

No good me kicking the ground eyes down cast pretending I do not think as I do.
I was a bit of a rough nut in my youth in Sydney, three different spells as football and work took me there then away.
We westys came from every country, I can not get past this.
Never going to name those Sydney suburbs, but name pubs, Lexi I think, once said she knew that area.
Hung around the after work, Plastos, Royal, would not go there armed with an AK47 now.
Down the road? Auntie lived there,she one of 13 kids had that many her self, would never not ever go there now.
Have, and felt the hate, LAKE3MBA named it loved it unwelcome there now.
Will not go on, but how much contact have our posters had with these enclaves in Sydney.
Go to Leicart you will be served by an Italian, who will call you mate and give you a great welcome, feed and send you on your way.
In Lidcome you can get the same From a great Muslim Lady wed to a great Greek man.
Do not put halos, on the head of every Muslim.
Nore bad ,but no blindness, why should the west take migrants from any country that has so different a cultural and religious base?

Certainly an interesting accumulation of threads on this most sensitive topic.

Multiculturalism, has it or does it, really work here in Australia ?

From my limited point of view, I think it has and it shall continue to do so. With most groups and cultural mixes settling in very nicely I must say.

Funnily, upon my repatriation from South Vietnam, the prospect of the then, PM Malcolm FRASER allowing many Vietnamese Refugees into the country. To me, was totally abhorrent and was tantamount to high treason by a former Minister for the Army, no less !

Yet years later, I now have several good friends, including my long serving Pharmacist who are all of Vietnamese extraction.

However, there are groups mainly those from war torn countries in Africa such as the Sudan, Somalia and several other more tribal ethnicities that cannot and will not adhere to our laws, nor respect our various culturals.

Unlike the Vietnamese of long ago, they have no intention of EVER subsuming or trying to assimilate into the Australian way of life.

Interestingly, in Melbourne there are two so called 'warring' families from The Lebanon. The patriarch of one of these families today stated inter alia, "...I return to Lebanon, nobody help me, no police nobody, Australia's a '....' country...". I guess that's an illustration of multiculturalism at work ?